Feet
and Kenshiro Abbey
Please do note that the second part of this, my contribution
to this months taichido newsletter is not nearly so trivial
as the first part.
I have a question for the Bare Foot Doctor: How do you avoid
foot infections!? I do totally agree with the concept that,
when and where possible one should play Tai Chi in bare or stocking/socked
feet or at the most in those little light Kung Fu slipper things.
You might expect that from me for I am a bit of a fundamentalist
and revel in the fact that one 'needs' nothing at all to play
Tai Chi - apart from so time and space ... and self discipline.
However as I have found out to my cost (and pain!) going bare
foot in some places, or for prolonged periods of time can be
hazardous and, as in my case, it might be months or years before
one realises that damage has been done.
A couple of years ago I went to my local chemist and asked their
advice on what I thought was either just a callous produced
as a result of quite intensive (bare foot) Tai Chi or perhaps
just a little more serious, a verruca. I had soon, to no avail,
used up the medication that I purchased from the chemist; and
the next concoction did nothing, nor did the next and the next
... and so on. Eventually, a couple of years later I went to
a Chiropodist. He also seemed to also think that the thing was
just an occupational hazard callous; so he shimmed it down to
be level with the sole of my foot. That was a couple of months
ago. What happened next was that my foot begun to hurt. It was
a local pain but it caused me to start limping to avoid putting
pressure on that foot. And then every muscle in that leg began
to ache - and pretty soon the other one did to.
I went back to the Chiropodist and he started to treat the foot
and lump upon just as before but then; yuck! I'll spare you
the gory details and say only that I left the Chiropodist a
pound or two as a tip - to put towards his laundry bill! Maybe
more than metaphorically, he washed his hands of the matter
and told me to go see a doctor. That was a couple of weeks ago.
Since then I have been to the doctors twice and once to a walk
in (hop in more like!) emergency clinic. And then I spent Monday
of this week in hospital - as a clinical emergency admission.
At one point there was talk of a general aesthetic and a three
or for day stay but that was fortunately not to be. Under local
aesthetic I had a sebaceous cyst that had developed around a
foreign body removed.
All of this that has happened to me is nothing compared to what
my Tai Chi teacher (Ray Wood) has been through. You may remember
me telling you that he had a long stay in hospital at the beginning
of this year; having a defibrillator fitted. Unfortunately he
is back in there again (for some fine tuning). Between these
times we have met frequently to train and discuss all manner
of things - including Kenshiro Abbey and his theory of Kyushindo.
A short biography of this great martial art Master and brief
discussion of his theories has been online @taichido.com for
a number of years.
As a consequence of our meetings Ray passed on a 30,000+ word
document to me a couple of months ago - and it's a gold mine!
It not only records Kenshiro Abbe's life in some detail, it
also expounds and entirely deconstructs, explains and reconstructs
his Unified Theory of Kyushindo; ending with three absolutely
clear 'precepts'. I have been sub editing, crafting and re-writing
parts of this substantial piece and, given the time that I have
had on my hands - due to the scar on my foot as above - I have
filtered it down now to 14,314 words of hard copy, entitled:
'"Ukikoto no arumi no chikara tamesan." My potentiality
has got a limit. The Life and Times and Accomplishments of Kenshiro
Abbe 1915 - 1985 - With Philosophical and Scientific Analysis
of his Unified Theory of Kyushindo.'
Kenshiro Abbe is both a legendary and mysterious figure. At
one stage he was Judo Champion of all Japan, even assisting
in having that sport included in the Tokyo Olympic Games in
1964; but he died alone and forgotten. Abbey travelled far and
wide. He lived in London for a while, went to and fro and eventually
went back to Japan, where he died. In between times he is supposed
to have visited Marseilles, Nice, Monaco, Turin, Rome, Sweden,
Athens, Dakar, Ethiopia and Abyssinia as a travelling teacher,
but there is very little to no documenter evidence or official
record of most of this. Consequently there are organisations
all over the world that claim to be or teach "Kyushindo"
this, that or the other, however, as far as my research goes,
that's about as far as they go. They know that Kenshiro Abbe
'created' Kyushindo - but up until now I have not seen or heard
a single meaningful analytical word on the subject. Our book
puts an end to that!
As the title may suggest, '"Ukikoto no arumi no chikara
tamesan." My potentiality has got a limit. The Life and
Times and Accomplishments of Kenshiro Abbe 1915 - 1985 - With
Philosophical and Scientific Analysis of his Unified Theory
of Kyushindo' was conceived of as a 'specialist' book in hard
copy and that may be the format that best suits the subject
matter and, in part, biographical style of this work. Thus;
when I began writing this newsletter it was my plan to simply
quote some sections from the book. However, I have (since beginning
this newsletter), just as an experiment really, put the whole
thing online at wheelswithinwheels.net and it works well. So
it's all there for all to see now - and just to tempt you there
I have attached (below) the indexed menu from the online presentation
and invite you to visit at your leisure. trust that you forgive
me for this divergence from mainstream Tai Chi. In mitigation
I should say that Kyushindo Philosophy is eminently suitable
and compatible to Tai Chi and not at all irrelevant. I urge
you to visit and decide for yourself.
"Ukikoto no arumi no chikara tamesan."
My potentiality has got a limit.
The Life and Times and Accomplishments of Kenshiro Abbe 1915
- 1985
With Philosophical and Scientific Analysis of his Unified Theory
of Kyushindo
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd_index.htm
Preface:
Three short but important paragraphs from the original researcher,
compiler and author, Mr. Raymond Wood 8th Dan Hanshi
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/preface.htm
PART ONE
The Life and Times and Accomplishments of Kenshiro Abbe
1915 - 1933/5
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_lat_1.htm
1933/5 - 1941/5
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_lat_2.htm
1945 - 1964
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_lat_3.htm
1964 - 1985
Epilogue. Satori or "Enlightenment".
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_lat_5E.htm
PART 2A
Philosophical and Scientific Analysis of Kyushindo
Fascicle 1. KU SHIN DO
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_pas_1.htm
Fascicle 2. Aims, Principles, Objectives and Techniques
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_pas_2.htm
PART 2B
Fascicle 3. To follow the path of seeking …
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_pas_3.htm
Fascicle 4. Theory and Practice
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_pas_4.htm
PART 3
The Three Basic Precepts of Kyushindo
i. BAMBUTSU RUTEN
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_ps_1.htm
ii. RITSU DO
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_ps_2.htm
iii. CHO WA
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/kaksd/kaksd_ps_3.htm
Cheng Man-ching
I recently found a fantastic video clip online of the great
tai chi legend Cheng Man-ching. Taken in 1976, its 6 mins and
by an unknown videographer. With a bit more googling I found
that according to a George Chiang of Long River Tai Chi, which
was set up by Wolfe Lowenthal, Ken Van Sickle is the film's
author, filming Cheng at w115th street in a tree by Riverside
Park, New York. Check it out for yourself at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8162222609571015204
Cheng Man-Ch’ing was born on 19th July
1900, and died on March 26th, 1975. He is regarded as a grand
master of tai chi and was hugely influential in the twentieth
century in bringing tai chi to the West.
One of the aspects of his reputation was the cultural side
of his work. He was a recognised master of poetry, painting,
calligraphy, medicine as well as tai chi chuan. These areas
were the traditional skills of a Confucian scholar in ancient
China, and so he became known as the ‘Master of Five
Excellences’- an unusual and fairly rare title in the
twentieth century.
When Cheng was 9, he was hit by a falling brick and suffered
from loss of memory and a virtual vegetative state for a period
of time, during which he studied painting which enabled his
health to improve bit by bit. At fifteen he was introduced
into Poetry at Hangchou where he learnt this aspect and calligraphy.
By the age of 18 he received an invitation to teach poetry
at Yu-Wen University. Through the association of many of China’s
finest academic poets and calligraphers, his qualities improved.
At 24, he taught at the National Chi-nan University and then
was invited to be director of Chinese Painting at the Shanghai
School of Fine Arts. At 29, with others he founded the College
of Chinese Culture and Art, and at 30, he retired from teaching
and went to Yang-hu in the Chiangsu province to study the
classics under Ch’ien Ming-Shan.
His medical career is just as auspicious, much of which happened
at the same time, but I in this instance will put that to
one side as it is the tai chi chuan that we are most interested
in. He was a weak youth, so studied Shaolin Chuan to strengthen
up his body, but when he was 27 he suffered from a very serious
bout of tuberculosis and studied tai chi from Yang Cheng-Fu,
which helped him get through the illness. A year later he
in turn cured Yang’s wife from a life-threatening illness,
and in gratitude Yang taught him all he knew, or so the story
goes. From there this aspect of his career took off, and twenty
years later he created his own shortened form of the Yang
style, known as the 37 posture form. This differed from the
traditional style because it took much less time to practise,
the hands and wrist were much more open, the width of the
stance is more scrutinised and there was more of a rounded
look to the form.
When he was 48 he took this all to Taiwan, and at 63 he went
to America and opened a School in the Chinatown district of
New York, taught, wrote and collaborated on many projects.
Even as an elderly man he was virtually unbeaten in tai chi
chuan, until his gradual decline in health (some say aided
by his fondness for a tipple) and his death. It is estimated
that over 100,000 people have studied directly or indirectly
Cheng’s style of tai chi.
Gary can tell you about Cheng’s influences upon him
and why the style of Yang Form that Gary practises is still
Long Yang, but has flavours from Cheng’s teachings,
and this will be the subject of a future newsletter (I hope,
I haven’t asked him yet). Ads for me, Wolfe Lowenthall
wrote a fascinating book on Cheng entitled ‘There are
no Secrets’, and I remember reading it and coming across
something which has stuck in my mind ever since. In Wolfe’s
book there was a story where a new student arrived at the
School in New York, who was already a martial artist in other
forms. Eager to please, he asked Cheng which of the postures
would be most appropriate when starting a fight – a
proper fight, not a sport, and proceeded to go through a series
of combatitive moves. Cheng just stood in front of him, with
balanced in a relaxed state on both feet slightly apart, with
his hands clasped loosely in front of him and stated that
this was the best posture. When the confused student asked
him why, he replied that to go into a combative stance at
the beginning of a fight is to signify that you are entering
into a contract with your opponent which will result in violence,
possibly injury or maiming or even death. This (his) relaxed
and non-combative stance meant that no contract was obvious,
and therefore there would be a good chance of avoidance of
violence altogether, which was the real desired outcome…
Bib
Cheng Man Ch’ing, www.wikipedia.org
Cheng Tzu: Master of the Five Xcellences A life Biography
of Chneg Man Ching by Tam Gibbs. www.sinobarr.com/cheng/cheng_life_bio.htm
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